''Pizzino'' (; plural as ''pizzini'') is an

Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

word derived from the

Sicilian language Sicilian (, ; ) is a Romance languages, Romance language that is spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands. It belongs to the broader Extreme Southern Italian language group (in Italian ). ''Ethnologue'' (see #Ethnologue report ...

equivalent ''pizzinu'' meaning "small piece of paper". The word has been widely used to refer to small slips of paper that the

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...

uses for high-level communications. Sicilian Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano is among those best known for using ''pizzini'', most notably in his instruction that

Matteo Messina Denaro Matteo Messina Denaro (; 26 April 1962 – 25 September 2023), also known as ''Diabolik'' (from the Italian comic book character), was an Italian mafia boss from Castelvetrano. He was considered to be one of the new leaders of the Cosa Nostra a ...

become his successor. The ''pizzini'' of other mafiosi have significantly aided police investigations.

Provenzano case

Provenzano used a version of the

Caesar cipher In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar's cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar's code, or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in t ...

, used by Julius Caesar in wartime communications. The Caesar code involves shifting each letter of the alphabet forward three places; Provenzano's ''pizzini'' code did the same, then replaced letters with numbers indicating their position in the alphabet. For example, one reported note by Provenzano read "I met 512151522 191212154 and we agreed that we will see each other after the holidays...". This name was decoded as "Binnu Riina".

References

Pizzino Cryptography Organized crime terminology {{Mafia